9 March 2006 CRINMAIL 761
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- KENYA: Threat of Famine Looms in Kenya as Conditions Worsen [news]
- CHILDREN WITHOUT PARENTAL CARE: Improving Existing Mechanisms [publication]
- FOSTER CARE: Improving Programmes in Eastern Europe [call for papers]
- UNITED KINGDOM: Government Misses Poverty Target [news]
- COMMITTEE ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD: Forty Second Session [news]
- RIGHTS BASED PROGRAMMING: Equalinrights Project [call for resource persons]
- EMPLOYMENT: Plan International Pakistan [job posting]
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Your submissions are welcome if you are working in the area of child rights. To contribute, email us at [email protected]. Adobe Acrobat is required for viewing some of the documents, and if required can be downloaded from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html
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KENYA: Threat of Famine Looms in Kenya as Conditions Worsen [news]
[MANDERA, 6 January 2006] - Malnutrition is increasing exponentially in northern Kenya, reports the international aid organisation Action Against Hunger (also known as Action contre la Faim or ACF). With little food, no water, and dying cattle, the area faces the possibility of famine, the organisation warns.
During the first three weeks of December, the number of children admitted into ACF's emergency feeding centres was 29 per cent higher than during the entire month of November, with 49 per cent of those cases coming in the past week. In addition, children arriving at the centres are more severely malnourished than those the organisation has seen in the past, and they've been suffering from more potentially fatal diseases such as dysentery and malaria. ACF's supplemental feeding centers, which treat children suffering from less severe cases of malnutrition, are also seeing the largest number of admissions since the centres opened in 2004.
A lack of infrastructure in a harsh environment has meant a constant fight against malnutrition for the population living in northern Kenya. According to ACF Emergency Coordinator Roger Persichino, poor rainfall over the past three seasons has made the situation worse for the already vulnerable population, killing cattle that the pastoral population depends on for its livelihood.
"This population depends on cattle for food, transportation, and economic viability," said Persichino. "Cattle dying now means that children will die months from now, and families will be left with no economic viability or way to feed themselves."
With the support of the Kenyan government, the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the European Union, UNICEF, and the World Food Programme, Action Against Hunger has been working in conjunction with local NGOs and other international aid organisations to reach imperiled populations throughout the district.
ACF is currently opening a new feeding centre in the northwest and will be working with the local community to distribute water, rehabilitate wells, and improve sanitation for about 54,000 people. Additional international support is nonetheless essential. ACF warns that without blanket food distributions, immediate assistance to livestock, support for the local health-care system, and a focus on the long-term rehabilitation of water and sanitation facilities, Kenya is likely to face even more deaths in the future.
More information
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CHILDREN WITHOUT PARENTAL CARE: Improving Existing Mechanisms [publication]
The Bernard van Leer Foundation, A CRIN member, has recently published a new issue of its Early Childhood Matters journal series on Children Without Parentla Care: Qualitative Alternatives. A growing number of children around the world are currently orphaned or otherwise growing up without parents, through violence, HIV/AIDS, poverty, and natural or man-made disasters. This publication points to the lack of clear guidelines for providing adequate care, and gives suggestions on how to improve existing mechanisms.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child emphasises the importance of the family in children’s lives. Its preamble notes that "the family, as the fundamental group of society and the natural environment for the growth and wellbeing of all its members and particularly children, should be afforded the necessary protection and assistance so that it can fully assume its responsibilities" and "the child, for the full and harmonious development of his or her personality, should grow up in a family environment, and atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding."
But how can the most appropriate use of alternative care be ensured? The Convention (art. 3) says that, in principle, responses should always take into account the best interest of the child. Reality, though, shows that this does not always happen – the frequency with which serious problems are reported regarding care for children in informal or formal fostering (such as kinship care, adoption and residential facilities) suggests that alternative care measures should be better monitored.
The requirement for international standards is one of the many issues brought up at the Discussion Day on Children without Parental Care, organised by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva, Switzerland, in September 2005. There is a need for international guidelines that guarantee the appropriateness of the environment in which children grow up. Recommendations arising from that meeting are scheduled for publication in early 2006.
Early Childhood Matters is a journal about early childhood. It looks at specific issues regarding the development of young children, in particular from a psychosocial perspective. It is published twice per year by the Bernard van Leer Foundation.
For more information, contact:
Bernard van Leer Foundation
PO Box 82334, 2508 EH, Den Haag, Netherlands
Tel: +31 70 331 2200
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.bernardvanleer.org
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FOSTER CARE: Improving Programmes in Eastern Europe [call for papers]
Date: 4-7 June 2006
Location: Bratislava, Slovakia
The International Foster Care Organisation (IFCO), a CRIN member, is organising an event to bring together people from across Eastern Europe involved in the development and improvement of foster care programmes in the region. The seminar, Developing Foster Care in the CEE, CIS and Baltics - Learning Together, will consist of a series of plenary and workshop sessions that address the topic of family-based care.
IFCO's "East-East Network" seeks to link together all those involved in the development of family based care in the countries of Eastern Europe (CEE/CIS/Baltics). Since 1989 considerable progress has been made in deinstitutionalisation and the development of family support services and foster care in many countries in the region, but progress is patchy and overall the proportion of children in public care continues to rise.
Call for papers: IFCO is inviting interested individuals to submit papers for the seminar. The submission deadline for papers is 14 April 2006.
For more information, contact:
Lubka Semrincova
Tel: +421 904 316 083
Fax: +421 263 815 208 / 209
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://bratislava.ifco.info
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UNITED KINGDOM: Government Misses Poverty Target [news]
[UK Prime Minister] Tony Blair pledged in 1999 to eradicate child poverty by 2020 - and to have cut it from 4.1 million to 3.1 million by April 2005. Department for Work and Pension figures show the number of children in poverty has fallen by 700,000 since 1999, missing the target by 300,000. Ministers say the government remains committed to wiping out poverty within a generation, but opposition [members of parliament] called it "disappointing" and "disturbing".
A family is considered to be officially poor if they are living on less than 60 per cent of Britain's average household income, once housing costs are taken into account.
Poverty campaigners say good progress has been made but they want further investment in benefits schemes to help lift more families above the breadline. Under the government's welfare-to-work policies, more than 300,000 extra lone mothers have found employment. But campaigners believe these strategies have left behind large families or those with disabled children.
Sir Jeremy Beecham, vice-chairman of the Local Government Association, said there had been a significant reduction in child poverty but there was "still much to be done". He said enhancing the take-up of council tax benefit by the low paid would help reduce poverty numbers further. "The current system is too complicated and fails to provide an adequate safety net for many of the poorest families in the country," he said. "Ministers should embrace the opportunity to ensure that those most in need get the entitlements to help them out of poverty."
Ms Hodge [from the Department of Work and Pensions] said the government had inherited "the poorest record in Europe" when it came to power with one in three children growing up in poverty. She said it had managed to "break the cycle of deprivation" and helped six million families and 10 million children.
Conservative work and pensions' spokesman Philip Hammond, speaking earlier, said employment for parents was the key to ending child poverty, and that people could not rely on the state to solve the problem. "The state is not the only engine of social justice," he said. "We need to engage the private sector, the voluntary sector in a collaborative effort to tackle the scourge of child poverty."
[Source: BBC News]
Read Save the Children UK's press release: Blair Betray's Britain's Poorest Children
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COMMITTEE ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD: Forty Second Session [news]
The next session of the Committee on the Rights of the Child will be held from 15 May to 2 June 2006 at the Palais Wilson in Geneva. Alternative reports submitted by NGOs for the forty-second session are now available on the CRIN website. Further reports will be posted as they become available.
Scheduled for consideration are reports from Colombia (third periodic report), Latvia (second periodic report), Lebanon (third periodic report), the Marshall Islands (second periodic report), Mexico (third periodic report), Turkmenistan (initial report), Tanzania (second periodic report) and Uzbekistan (second periodic report).
Under the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, the reports of Turkey, Qatar, Iceland and Italy are scheduled for consideration.
Under the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict, the reports of Belgium, El Salvador, Canada, the Czech Republic, Iceland and Italy are scheduled for consideration.
Indeed States are beginning to submit their initial reports under the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography (OPSC) and the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict (OPAC). To date, OPSC has 114 signatories and 104 States parties; 15 initial reports were submitted to the Committee so far. OPAC has 121 signatories, 107 States parties; 20 initial reports have been submitted.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child has 192 States parties. Only the United States and Somalia have not yet ratified it.
More information
General news on the work of the Committee
Information about the 42nd session
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RIGHTS BASED PROGRAMMING: Equalinrights Project [call for resource persons]
The Equal in Rights Project is calling for information for its database of resource persons on applying a human rights based approach to development. Equalinrights is an independent international resource centre and support network that operates as a project within the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights. Equalinrights was established in August 2005 in response to an identified gap in support, resources and know-how in understanding and implementing a human rights-based attack on poverty.
One of the current priorities at Equalinrights is to develop a database of resource persons across the breadth of human rights-based strategies. This project responds to a significant gap in awareness of expertise in these areas. Many diverse organisations, ranging from grassroots development organisations, national human rights NGOS and international development agencies, are struggling to find good and reliable resource persons to support them in trainings, strategy development, ongoing consultancy support and general advice. Equalinrights are thus looking for people with a range of experiences, motivated to support the advancement of human rights, strengthen civil society and build the global coalition against poverty and neo-liberal domination.
This resource database will eventually form part of a larger joint resource centre on tools, methodologies and conceptual papers around the application of the human rights-based approach and the realisation of economic, social and cultural rights. This will involve an interactive process of development through which Equalinrights will also seek to bring together those working closely in this area to develop best practices for human rights-based strategies. Equalinrights hopes to work collaboratively to identify gaps and to evolve human rights and development practice in order to work more effectively towards the empowerment of all human beings to live in human dignity.
Through this process Equalinrights will also seek to identify geographical areas where there is a lack of expertise and know-how in applying human rights-based strategies. It proposes then to support identified potential resource persons through trainings, further study, internships and experience exchange with others.
More information on the purpose and use of the database of resource persons and the skills and experience sought
The Equalinrights website will be launched mid-March 2006 at the following address: http://www.equalinrights.org
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EMPLOYMENT: Plan International Pakistan [job posting]
Plan International Pakistan is seeking to recruit a Rehabilitation Director to be responsible for the overall guidance and management of Plan’s medium and long term response to the impacts of the October 2005 earthquake in Pakistan. He/she will ensure that the children’s rights and welfare come first and that Plan’s Child Centred Community Development approach is part of all programme activities.
The Rehabilitation Director will be responsible for initiating and managing a long term recovery programme that prioritises and promotes the rights, needs and capacities of children. He/she will represent Plan and work collaboratively with the international and local community aiming to develop and maximise the use of local capacities.
Application deadline: 21 March 2006
For more information, email: [email protected]
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